In the 21st century, the role of the school library has transitioned into that of a school library media center or laboratory where learning takes place for both teacher/librarian and student. Highcroft Drive Library Media Center still supports and encourages student interests in reading and literature, but as technology advances we must also build a solid foundation of skills for students to use throughout life.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Wow! It's hard to believe another rotation of 36 classes has come through the library over the past six days. We have morning circulation up and running with help from our fifth grade student volunteers who has so generously given their time to shelve books, help students find books, check in books, check out books, place books on the cart and deliver books and materials to teachers. I don't know what I would do without them!

...On to what we have learned in media specials the past "rotation."

Fifth graders have listened to another selection from Guys Write for Guys Read, compiled by Jon Scieszka. We enjoyed Jack Prelutsky's, A Day at the Zoo. Afterwards we just learned how to insert a map to use as an interactive map for our Lewis and Clark expedition. We will be adding to the map as we learn more about Lewis and Clark, Sacajawea, the Corps of Discovery and Seaman. (More in later posts. This is a major process.)

Fourth graders have listened to an extract from Roald Dahl and all but one class has finished the VERY condensed version of Danny, the Champion of the World, in the Roald Dahl Treasury. Tuesday, September 13 would have been Roald Dahl's 95th birthday if he was still with us today. We celebrated with a trivia question for a Peach Award (based on the book James and the Giant Peach. It was published in the states 50 years ago this year. We will be focusing on going to his website and reading about his childhood and testing our knowledge about many of the books he has written.

Third graders have focused on using the online search stations and searching independently for their books on the shelves. We are becoming more and more independent in the media center as well as looking for good fit books. There is more to this rather than looking up titles or subjects. We have learned how to look for reading levels, nonfiction and fiction titles as well as genres. To begin our lesson we read, Bob the Alien learns the Dewey Decimal Classification System.

Second graders have learned about meteors, which are not falling stars, but rocks/iron particles that are in space and can come very close to earth. We read Meteor, by Patricia Polacco and learned a true meteor landed on her farm in Michigan where it serves as her grandmother's headstone. There will be a meteor shower in October 8th and December 13th. You might want to watch for these as a family and begin a tradition.

Students in the first grade learned about dragons. They are mythological creatures. We also read about Komodo dragons (nonfiction) that live on the island of Komodo. They are called dragons because of their appearance, "fire colored tongue" and fierceness. We also discussed pets such as bearded dragons. Afterwards we enjoyed a funny chapter book titled, A friend for Dragon by Dav Pilkney. Dragon wants a friend so badly, and snake takes advantage of Dragon by playing a trick on him. We laughed until we had tears in our eyes.

Kindergarten students continue to check out from the "E" neighborhood. We have read more books by Eric Carle and have learned many finger plays. I am so amazed at how fast and how much they learn. They are very well behaved which is a reflection on their parents. Thank you for all you do to teach your children about responsibility, respect, and good listening skills. It really makes my job so easy and we have so much fun! This is a goal of mine so students will grow to love coming to the library, checking out books, reading, and becoming lifetime users and 21st century learners.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

I remember this day as I had just accepted a new position at a brand new school in New Jersey. It was on a Tuesday, a beautiful early September day without a cloud in the sky. Several of the student's parents would not make it back to pick them up from school because they worked in one of the World Trade Centers.

Thank goodness my husband was not traveling since he was able to collect our three children from school and bring them home. For the next week you could still see smoke, dust, etc. rising from lower Manhattan.

Let's not forget those that lost their lives in New York, Washington D. C., or Pennsylvania that day.